Traveler's Tool Kit, 3rd

List Price: $16.95 Discount Price: $6.19

Customer Reviews:

traveler's tool kit [Posted on 2007-07-15]
Actually I haven't looked at the book. Only the reviews. It sounds fabulous. We are going to Europe(May/2008) with teen. Have been to Europe many times. I would love to purchase this book, but it looks as if the most recent ed is 3rd, which is 2000 copyright. Will there be a newer edition soon?
Thanks,

Larry Cummings

Traveler's Tool Kit: How to Travel Absolutely Anywhere [Posted on 2007-07-17]
Traveler's Tool Kit is a general all purpose guide to traveling abroad. This book is divided into four parts: Planning your Trip, Getting Ready, On the Road, and The Finish Line. Within these four sections, however, are twenty-four chapters. These chapters include all the usual topics such as How to Choose Where to Go; Money; Lodging; Eating and Drinking; Language; and Transportation. Furthermore, several unique chapters are explored in this book with titles such as Travel Gear; Keeping Healthy; Safety and Security; Etiquette; and How to Stay in Touch with Home Base.

Each of these chapters contains a variety of hints, tips, and entertaining but educational stories pertaining to each particular topic. Though many of the hints and tips are commonly quoted sage advice, many of the ideas provided in this book are novel, obviously hard won information collected through extensive travel abroad by the author. In this way, no matter how little or how much travel experience the reader has, he or she will find ample helpful tips and hints.

Traveler's Tool Kit focuses on international travel rather than domestic travel. Furthermore, the author attempts to illustrate how to be a traveler rather than a tourist. A traveler, as opposed to a tourist, is a person who travels through a country, city, or town trying to soak up the atmosphere and culture of the particular inhabitants. Basically, the traveler attempts to learn from and experience the real life of people from other cultures. A traveler, unlike a tourist, stays away from well-worn tracks, tourist tours, museums, and souvenir shops. Instead, he or she takes the road traveled by the villagers, eats at the restaurants they eat at, and bargains like a professional at the local market. Furthermore, the traveler is ever weary of the pick pocket and the scam artist. Thus, Traveler's Tool Kit contains a plethora of information for the want to be international traveler.

Very Good Traveler's Tool Kit but needs updating. [Posted on 2007-07-28]
This is a well-written resource for the traveler. Most of the advice and information is interesting and very-useful as well as time-tested. Fro example, the description of shopping tactics and how store keepers will price their goods according to the perceived affluence of the traveler was interesting and practical. Watching a well-known traveler on the Travel Channel interact with a store merchant in a South American country, I was amazed to see such an experienced traveler fall for the merchant tactics described in this book.
But some sections need updating. I would recommend this book for a general back ground of traveling but would also recommend purchasing a newer book for current data.

Traveler's tool kit [Posted on 2007-09-26]
Traveler's Tool Kit, 3rd (Purchased on 08/26/2007)

This is essential for anyone who travels.

Really needs an update! [Posted on 2007-12-20]
This book does have a lot of helpful information in it. A lot of it is stuff that I already know, having done a lot of traveling, but that's beside the point; almost any traveler would derive lots of great tips from reading this very substantial volume (it's a lot thicker than I expected!)

The problem is, it's now been nearly 8 years since this book was written, and considering that it was published pre-9/11, there is a LOT about travel that has changed since then. A lot of the tips on air travel are now completely irrelevant, especially those on international plane travel. There were quite a few statements that I either knew were incorrect, or had to look up online to verify and found them to be wrong because of the changes since 2001. For example, he encourages people to obtain 48-page passports, but these have not been available in the US for quite some time. He also does not include as many internet resources as he could if he put out a new edition now; the Web has come quite a long way since 2000!

In short, while this book has a lot of information, I do not recommend buying this outdated edition. It's not worth the money given how much of it is no longer valid.

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